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Yeah… doctors recommend supplementing vitamin D if you don’t get much sun. This almost feels comedic.

by ericmcer 3y ago

cj 3y ago
Did the study not control for confounding factors?
- alsobrsp 3y ago
  It did, they state that right in the summary.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    But they don't necessarily say what those confounding factors are in the abstract (I'm assuming they do in the full paper but I don't have access). It's easy for me to imagine tons of confounding factors that are associated with vitamin supplementation, e.g. wealth (wealth is associated with better health outcomes nearly everywhere you look), diet in general, exercise levels, etc. I highly doubt they accounted for all of these.
    - hombre_fatal 3y ago
      Then the confidence levels would blow up.
lowmagnet 3y ago
Doctors recommend supplementing vitamin D if you have a measured deficiency. Most people naturally settle to 20 ng/mL or higher, and just incidental exposure, or eating certain foods can help you either absorb or synthesize it. There are also people, like me, who no matter what, we can't make as much vitamin D for whatever cluster of genetic factors causes that. Some of us are always tired unless we take 50,000 IU of D3 a week.
- garciasn 3y ago
  That’s over double the dose considered “safe”. Obviously, I’m not suggesting you do otherwise; it’s just way outside the bounds of what most adults would do unless directed to by their physician.
  - Auracle 3y ago
    I’m prescribed 50,000 3x a week. The RDA was possibly miscalculated, but the only real way to know what will work for you is test - dose - test, repeat.
  - yesbut 3y ago
    For context, this study found that 30 minutes of midday summer sun exposure in Oslo, Norway was equivalent to consuming 10,000–20,000 IU of vitamin D. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19667143 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19667143 Must be much higher in sunnier regions.
    - amenhotep 3y ago
      The neat thing about vitamin D synthesis in the skin is that it stops once there's enough of it - it is literally impossible to overdose on vitamin D through sun exposure. So, there's a ceiling that makes "must be higher in sunny regions" far from obviously true!
      - yesbut 3y ago
        What happens to unused vitamin D consumed from supplementation?
        amenhotep 3y ago
        That gets stored in the fat. Overdose through ingestion is a thing, our bodies aren't so smart about that; it's skin synthesis specifically that limits itself.

Yeah… doctors recommend supplementing vitamin D if you don’t get much sun. This almost feels comedic.

cj 3y ago

Did the study not control for confounding factors?

alsobrsp 3y ago
It did, they state that right in the summary.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
  But they don't necessarily say what those confounding factors are in the abstract (I'm assuming they do in the full paper but I don't have access). It's easy for me to imagine tons of confounding factors that are associated with vitamin supplementation, e.g. wealth (wealth is associated with better health outcomes nearly everywhere you look), diet in general, exercise levels, etc. I highly doubt they accounted for all of these.
  - hombre_fatal 3y ago
    Then the confidence levels would blow up.

lowmagnet 3y ago

Doctors recommend supplementing vitamin D if you have a measured deficiency. Most people naturally settle to 20 ng/mL or higher, and just incidental exposure, or eating certain foods can help you either absorb or synthesize it. There are also people, like me, who no matter what, we can't make as much vitamin D for whatever cluster of genetic factors causes that. Some of us are always tired unless we take 50,000 IU of D3 a week.

garciasn 3y ago
That’s over double the dose considered “safe”. Obviously, I’m not suggesting you do otherwise; it’s just way outside the bounds of what most adults would do unless directed to by their physician.
- Auracle 3y ago
  I’m prescribed 50,000 3x a week. The RDA was possibly miscalculated, but the only real way to know what will work for you is test - dose - test, repeat.
- yesbut 3y ago
  For context, this study found that 30 minutes of midday summer sun exposure in Oslo, Norway was equivalent to consuming 10,000–20,000 IU of vitamin D. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19667143 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19667143 Must be much higher in sunnier regions.
  - amenhotep 3y ago
    The neat thing about vitamin D synthesis in the skin is that it stops once there's enough of it - it is literally impossible to overdose on vitamin D through sun exposure. So, there's a ceiling that makes "must be higher in sunny regions" far from obviously true!
    - yesbut 3y ago
      What happens to unused vitamin D consumed from supplementation?
      - amenhotep 3y ago
        That gets stored in the fat. Overdose through ingestion is a thing, our bodies aren't so smart about that; it's skin synthesis specifically that limits itself.